Former Trump Attorney Refuses to Answer Question About Boris Epshteyn in Tense Exchange: ‘Did You Leave Because of Him?’
An MSNBC interview with former Trump attorney Timothy Parlatore became tense on Friday after host Ari Melber questioned Parlatore about his relationship with former President Donald Trump’s adviser Boris Epshteyn.
Even before Melber’s question about Epshteyn, the interview was already tense as Melber questioned Parlatore about his defense of Trump in the classified documents case.
“You guys, back when you were on the team, didn’t ever win a single court argument or judicial ruling that the key stuff they wanted was not classified,” said Melber — a comment which Parlatore disagreed with.
“Nor did we have a hearing on that,” Parlatore shot back. “You’re saying we didn’t win a hearing on whether they were classified even though we never had a hearing. That’s not something that would have happened at this stage.”
Later on, Parlatore argued that it ultimately did not matter which classification the documents in the Trump case had:
People have been acquitted before for possessing top secret documents that were over-classified. People have been convicted for possessing unclassified material that did constitute national defense information. So classification, declassification, a lot of… it’s great for, you know, for talking about in the media and everything, and it’s good for comms strategy, but ultimately when it comes down to…
“Well Tim, you’re not accusing me of being part of the media?” Melber joked, before adding, “I’m just having fun with you.”
The host then went on to press Parlatore about his relationship with Epshteyn, who Parlatore revealed last month was the cause of his exit from Trump’s defense team:
Someone listening to you, if somebody has only heard what is I do think tough evidence against Trump, someone listening to you might think, “Gosh, maybe this is complicated. Gosh, maybe there are available legal defenses.”
That’s what makes you the lawyer that you are, and yet you’re here tonight in part because you’re no longer on this team, and it’s been publicly reported that there’s been these clashes. Boris Epshteyn, who in terms of litigation may have less experience than you, was sort of positioned as kind of your boss, or you can tell us in your own words what we was.
“Was he your boss or supervisor, did you leave because of him, and is he serving the former president’s interests?” the MSNBC host asked.
Parlatore avoided the question and replied:
Look, I gave an interview a couple weeks ago where I talked about the reasons why I left. I have certain reasons why I wanted to discuss that publicly, but I’ve said what I’ve said about Boris and at this point I don’t really want to expand on it anymore.
I appreciate the question, it’s just… here’s the thing, is that I’m a lawyer. I’m not a campaign guy, I’m not a political guy, and so my concern is the facts and the law and what happens in a courtroom. And really the whole narrative about Boris, what his role is, it’s more of a political conversation. It’s not something that I really wanna, you know.
Melber shot back, “Well I would push you on that. I mean, you’re gonna choose what you say, but there are people who care about the issues here, and if somebody that close to the former president is pushing things that are false or complicating it, that’s of public interest.”
Watch above via MSNBC.
